Over the past few years my husband, Josh, and I have been living a bit of a lux life style. We had spent way too much money on espresso and frappes, and ordered organic fair trade coffee on the internet. We have partaken in expensive hobbies like gourmet cooking and salt water aquariums.

All of these may seem find and dandy to most, but we are college students. College students who are now bogged down with credit card debt. College students who are forced to work full-time jobs in order to pay unnecessary bills.

In the past month, Josh and I have decided that enough is enough. We have to simplify our lives and pay off those credit card debts. We are almost 30 year olds and we still live pay check to pay check. It is only going to get worse. So, we enrolled in a program that is going to allow us to pay of our debts. There is only one catch! We have to pay to more than our minimum payment to most of our credit card companies. Imagine that.

This has forced us to cut way back on many things. Honestly, I have been moping around in a depression induced stupor for the better part of a month.

I woke up this morning in a terrible mood. Josh, and I only have $113 dollars over the next three weeks. That amounts to less than $40 dollars a week for groceries.

From the point of view of a gourmand, that is absolutely terrifying to imagine that I cannot even purchase staples from the grocery store.

Instead of letting it get to me, I pondered for several hours on how I can make the most of this time in my life. I want to have a positive outlook on this. I want to make this a learning experience for us. I want to enjoy the rest of 2006 and ring in 2007 on a positive note.

So...

I made this blog to document our trials and tribulations in the world of